Call for Presenters: Lectures & Panels
About SCA Lectures
SCA lectures are educational presentations given by respected experts who inspire, educate, and motivate coffee professionals. Lecturers and panelists should strive to help audience members expand their coffee knowledge, as well as to set and reach goals for themselves and their businesses. Many of the most consistently popular lectures offer practical approaches to addressing challenges and opportunities faced by specialty coffee industry actors.
Typically 60 minutes in length, including Q&A, selected lectures fall into one of three categories respondents identified as valuable in the 2022 Content Generation Survey:
Business
Coffee Science
Sustainability
We’ve included examples of previously successful (and popular) lecture proposals below for each category.
Important to remember:
All proposals must be submitted by November 24, 2023.
Speakers may submit multiple proposals but will be limited to two (2) lectures per event.
Marketing and promotion of commercial products or services is strictly prohibited. The intent of the program is to provide quality lectures focused on educational content, free from commercial influence or bias. Also, all lecture presentations and materials must adhere to the SCA house rules, particularly that materials should not violate anyone else’s intellectual property rights or include any language that expressly or implicitly identifies individuals, companies, or other organizations as objects of criticism (defamation). We also strongly recommend that presenters and panelists follow the style guide outlined for speakers and presentations, especially if you are speaking about coffee price or people.
Speakers will be asked to create a visual presentation that is appropriate for the session (i.e., PowerPoint, Prezi, Keynote).
Once confirmed, speakers are required to be present at Specialty Coffee Expo, Chicago 2024.
It is recommended that each lecture include a handout that is either 1) a summary of key points, or 2) a list of resources or key tips/practices, etc. These will be uploaded and available to attendees on the Specialty Coffee Expo app (not printed), provided they are received on time.
Some presentations may be recorded onsite as a part of the SCA’s lecture series partnership with the Coffee Knowledge Hub for later release on their platform.
Selection Process: Each proposal is individually read and rated by the SCA lectures team and editorial review team. Ratings are based on such factors as (but not limited to) speaker credentials, subject relevance, originality, and learning objectives. Those with the highest aggregated ranking within the corresponding category will be accepted to fill a limited number of time slots. Time slots will be assigned by the lectures team and communicated with decision notifications.
Upon submitting your proposal, you should also receive an email from Airtable with a copy of the information you've shared with us here. This email will be sent from Airtable Automations noreply+automations@airtableemail.com on behalf of lectures@sca.coffee, and we strongly recommend that you ensure you can receive emails from both these addresses (i.e., they aren't blocked by any filters).
Decision notifications will be sent out via email to the designated primary contact by December 8, 2023.
Example #1: Sustainability
Connecting the Data Dots: Introducing State of the Smallholder Coffee Farmer Platform and Report
This session will present State of the Smallholder Coffee Farmer Platform, an open access data resource for coffee farmers and other actors along the coffee value chain, and accompanying report. Designed to facilitate enhanced decision making, this initiative seeks to remove barriers to equitable information sharing— including those structures preventing producers from accessing their own data. Currently a pilot focused on Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras, initial results stem from extensive review, analysis and synthesis of data about smallholders in these countries. The work complements other initiatives. However, instead of emphasizing upstream sustainability efforts and goals, this research centers on realities downstream to draw a more holistic and inclusive picture of coffee smallholders and their livelihoods. The platform and the report are also available in Spanish.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will gain an understanding of the existing social, economic, and environmental data on coffee smallholders in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, and the opportunities and limitations of the data.
Attendees will be introduced to the State of the Smallholder Coffee Farmer Platform and Report, and learn about how they were developed, through ‘data trawling’ and interviews with multiple actors along the coffee value chain.
Attendees will have the opportunity to test and provide feedback about the platform.
Example #2: Science
Electrochemistry as a Method to Measure Qualities and Quantities in Coffee Extraction
Coffee extracts contain thousands of different compounds, many of which contribute to the quality of the flavor profile. Minor fluctuations in the ratios of these compounds gives rise to major differences in perceived flavor. However, to date the industry is only able to measure the average total solvated mass (%TDS), or use cost prohibitive and slow chromatography methods. Electrochemistry offers one route to measuring coffee components in real time, and provides insights into both the quantity of compounds as well as their identity. Together, our approach provides unparalleled insight into what is solvated in the cup, while also being very cheap to build and operate. This talk will cover the fundamentals of electrochemistry, a demonstration of its utility, and a real-time demonstration.
Learning Objectives:
The audience will learn the fundamentals of electrochemistry.
The audience will learn the challenges of quantifying coffee extraction.
The audience will see a real-time example of electrochemical measurements of coffee.
Example #3: Business
Global Coffee Supply and Demand
The coffee industry has experienced an incredibly volatile NY ”C” market following the Brazil frosts in July 2021, and it is important for exporters and producers to understand changing market conditions so that appropriate trading decisions can be made. This presentation will provide participants with an overview of global supply and demand. We will take an in-depth look at fundamentals, macro factors, fund positioning and technicals—all factors that strongly influence coffee market prices. We will dissect origin production figures, global demand, differential trends, macroeconomic factors, fund positioning, arbitrage, spreads and certified stocks. The market information we present will hopefully provide producers and exporters with the resources and information to manage risk and execute successful trades.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will gain an understanding of the myriad of factors that influence the NY “C” market: fundamentals, macro, positioning and technicals.
Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of production trends of the world’s largest producing origins and see how global supply and demand creates surplus/deficit situations that influence the market.
Participants will gain valuable market information that will help them make appropriate trading decisions in the upcoming year.
What We’re Looking For
Lecture presenters are carefully vetted experts who are highly enthusiastic about their area of expertise and have a strong desire to share knowledge for the betterment of the industry. Panel discussions typically include one moderator and up to four panelists. The moderator selects panelists, prepares the panelists, and leads the live discussion. Presenters/panelists can be experts, academics, researchers, and industry leaders of all backgrounds, especially those whose voices are often underrepresented in our industry.
We encourage anyone interested in lecture presenting to spend some time exploring our previously published content in order to familiarize themselves with event style and programs.
We also recommend digging into our presenter expectations and style guide—they provide important insight into how we evaluate presenters.
If you are interested in nominating yourself to speak, check out presenter expectations and style guide for more information.
To nominate a lecture presenter or topic, please fill out this form.